cold?

it has been quite cool here the last week or so. such as: i am wearing a sweater right now and it rained a little bit yesterday. temperatures are in the 70’s with lows as low as (gasp) 57, with quite a bit of wind whirling around. rosa calls it “icy” and i laugh.

so the other night i worked till close and was sitting at the bus stop awaiting my bus home. it was dark and with the dark comes the dreaded “low” temperatures. three teenage girls descended upon the bus stop. between their three minds, it was decided that it was freezing cold and death was most certainly on the horizon for all of us should be bus not approach immediately. i was the only one wearing long sleeves.

the girls, all of hawaiian decent, talked about how the white kids (undoubtedly military kids coming from the mainland) talked about being cold- how they made this odd “brrrr” sound and shivered. they talked about these things the way that one talks about another country’s customs: “who in their right mind shivers?” “what kind of torture must it be to shiver!” “is there any way to prevent a shiver?”

it was fascinating to hear them discuss it. obviously they have never been really cold. the cold that gets down in your bones (this occurs right around november 1) and stays there for a long time (until about may 1 if you are lucky).

the hawaiians i talk to are in awe of the fact that i survived living in michigan for 20 years. i tell them about how i wore knee-high fleece lined, waterproof boots plus men’s knee high hiking socks everyday for 6+ months of the year. how i would wear three layers of shirts and sweaters, plus my sub-zero approved coat inside buildings, with the harf on top of that when i had the misfortune of venturing out of doors.

sometimes i see girls wearing fashionable, fur-lined boots and it just makes me smile.